What do you think?

Have a theory – or facts – for how the flower streets got their names? Let us know at nshine@ocregister.com.

Five fun flower facts

Acacia: With most species native to Australia, acacia isn't a flower. It's a tree or shrub with delicate yellow flowers that were used as a folk remedy for rabies.

Dahlia: Named for 18th-century Swedish botanist Anders Dahl, dahlias originated in Mexico and are its national flower.

Goldenrod: It's the state flower of Kentucky, Nebraska and South Carolina.

Iris: Named for the Greek goddess whose symbol is the rainbow, the flower's range of colors is one of its most distinctive qualities.

Narcissus: Popularly called jonquil or daffodil, this flower was named for a beautiful youth from Greek mythology condemned to fall in love with his own image.

Sources: Royal Horticultural Society, "An Introduction to the Medical History of Ethiopia," The Flower Society, Encyclopedia Britannica

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Corona del Mar – I'd wondered about the story behind Corona del Mar's flower streets since my single days, when I lived on Goldenrod Avenue and later Carnation Avenue.

Why flowers? Why did they run in an oddly alphabetical order from Avocado (hello, a tree) to Poppy? Why make two M's (Marguerite and Marigold) but skip E and K?

Whose half-baked idea was this?

I decided to find out.

I searched through the Register's archives. Nothing turned up. I Googled. Nada. It was time to talk to actual humans.

My first call: Gordy Grundy from the Newport Beach Historical Society. He had no clue, but he did share a cute story about trees and an earthquake. He said to call Jill Thrasher, the librarian at Sherman Library & Gardens in Corona del Mar.

I knew I was on the right track because the library is located on a flower street, Dahlia. It was kismet.

Thrasher, bless her heart, set aside a pile of books and old newsletters for me. I began digging.

I learned that land in early Corona del Mar was a smoking deal. The town's first developer, George Hart, bought much of today's Corona del Mar from James Irvine II for about $150 an acre. The deal tickled Irvine, who called a quarter of it “nothing but marshland.”

An early ad in the 1904 Santa Ana Daily Evening Blade offered 30-foot-wide lots for $100 and up. Now a home here sets you back up to $5 million, said Jennifer Carey, a nice Realtor who lives on Begonia Avenue. She had no idea how it got its name.

Back at the library, Thrasher said she'd heard a story about the streets being laid out to spell developer George Hart's name. A cute story, but she couldn't find anything to back that up.

Did that mean Hart named the flower streets? It didn't look that way. Maybe it happened after F.D. Cornell Co. bought the land from Hart in 1915.

Thrasher tracked down a street map from 1929. It showed all of today's flower streets, with one exception. What's now Poinsettia Avenue was called Pansy (until homeowners there lobbied for the new name).

I felt like we were closing in. Sometime between 1915 and 1929, the streets got their names.

Still, I didn't know who did it, or why.

I emailed Grundy. “Anyone else I can talk to?” I asked. Try Howard Hall, he said.

Hall, a local historian, said his grandmother owned a home at 214 Dahlia. His grandmother, not grandfather, bought the property, which we agreed was pretty neat for that era.

What about the flower names? He wasn't sure. “It had to be one of the two (Hart or Cornell),” he said, “because it was done very early.”

I went back to Google and tracked down the author of “The History of Corona del Mar,” Douglas Westfall.

Bingo. F.D. Cornell Co. named the flower streets, he said.

But why would a company choose flowers? Why create two A, M, and P streets?

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